Life is a test and a trust.

Seeing life from God’s View.

            We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

The way you see your life shapes your life. Your unspoken life metaphor influences your life more than you realize. It determines your expectations, your values, your relationships, your goals, and your priorities. For instance, if you think life is a party, your primary value in life will be having fun. If you see life is a race, you will value speed and will probably be in a hurry much of time. If you view life as a marathon, you will value endurance. If you see life as a battle or a game, winning will be very important to you. To fulfil the purposes God made you for, you will have to challenge conventional wisdom and replace it with the biblical metaphors of life.

             Rom 12:² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

            God continually tests people’s character, faith, obedience, love, integrity, and loyalty. Words like trials, temptations, refining, and testing occur more than 200 times in the Bible. God tested Abraham by asking him to offer his son Issac. God tested Jacob when he had to work extra years to earn Rachel as his wife. Adam and Eve failed their test in the Garden of Eden, and David failed his tests from God on several occasions. But the Bible also gives us many examples of people who passed a great test, such as Joseph, Ruth, Esther, and Daniel.

            Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test. You are always tested. God constantly watches your response to people , problems, success, conflict, illness, disappointment, and even the weather! He even watches the simplest actions such as when you pick up a trash, or when you are polite toward a clerk or a waitress.

            You will be tested by major changes, delayed promises, impossible problems, unanswered prayers, undeserved criticism, and even senseless tragedies.

            A very important test is how you act when you can’t feel  God’s presence in your life. Sometimes God intentionally draws back, and we don’t sense his closeness. I call this as a journey of the wilderness. A king named Hezekiah experienced this test. The Bible says, “ God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart”. Hezekiah had enjoyed a close fellowship with God , but at a crucial point in his life God left him alone to test his character, to reveal a weakness, and to prepare him for more responsibility. God wants you to pass the tests of life so he never allows the tests you face to be greater than the grace he gives you to handle them.

            Our time on earth and our energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships and resources are all gifts from God that he has entrusted to our care and management. We are steward of what God gives us. When God created Adam and Eve, he entrusted the care of his creation to them and appointed them trustees of his property. The first job God gave humans was to manage and take care of God’s stuff on Earth.

            Jesus often referred to life as a trust and told many Parables to illustrate this responsibility toward God. eg: the parable of TALENTS, a businessman entrusts his wealth to the care of his servants while he’s away. When he returns , he evaluates each servant’s responsibility and rewards them accordingly. Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Likewise at the end of your life on earth you will be evaluated and rewarded according to how well you handled what God entrusted to you.

We fail to realize that money is both a test and a trust from God. God uses finances to teach us to trust him, and for many people, money is the greatest test of all.

^{LK 16:10} "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. God watches how we use money to test how trustworthy we are. There is a direct relationship between how I use my money and the quality of my spiritual life. How IL manage my money (worldly wealth) determines how much God can trust me with spiritual blessings ( true riches). Life is a test and a trust, and the more God gives you, the more responsible he expects you to be.